Sera obtained at enrollment in the study from patients suffering from moderate to sever dysplasia (cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade II), carcinoma in situ (cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade III) and invasive carcinoma, or developing any of these conditions in the course of the prospective study, and from control subjects, were examined for herpes simplex type-2 (HSV-2) antibody presence. The controls were matched with the patients by age, age at first intercourse, number of sexual partners, smoking habits and history of diathermoelectrocoagulation of the ectopic epithelium and transformation zone of cervix. Only those subjects were selected as controls who remained free of pathological colposcopical and cytological findings throughout the observation period, i.e. for at least 4 years after their serum sample was obtained. The microneutralization test (MNT) and type-2-specific solid-phase radioimmunoassay (SPRIA) were used as serological tests. No difference in the prevalence of HSV-2 antibody between the patients and controls was revealed by either test. Various combinations of the results from the two tests also failed to show any difference between patients and controls. Moreover, no significant differences were observed in the prevalence of HSV-2 antibody between patients suffering from the various pathological conditions and those diagnosed at enrollment and later in the course of the study. These results do not provide any support for the hypothesis of the involvement of HSV-2 in cervical neoplasia.

In human diploid fibroblast LEP cells infected with AD169 strain of human cytomegalovirus (CMV) a sharp increase of cytosol thymidine kinase activity was observed. The properties of the cytosol enzymes from infected and non-infected cells were compared. No significant differences between the enzymes from infected and control cells were observed in substrate specificity, pH dependence, thermostability and relative electrophoretic mobility. Human sera containing high titres of CMV complement-fixing antibodies did not neutralize the enzyme from infected cells. It is concluded from these results that the increase of cytosol thymidinekinase activity in CMV-infected cells was due to an enhancement of cellular thymidine kinase.

The synthesis of the most common type I of collagen was proven in human amniotic fluid cell culture with fibroblast morphology in the cells as well as in the culture medium. Mesenchymal origin of long term cultivated amniotic fluid cells is indicated and the possibility of prenatal investigation of hereditary disorders of connective tissue is pointed out.

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Ninety-seven adenoid vegetations (AV) originating from children aged 2 to 11 years were examined for the presence of adenoviruses. No infectious virus was detected in cell-free homogenates. However, adenovirus was recovered in 30 instances from either fragment or trypsinized cell cultures, or both, of the same tissues. The viruses belonged to types 1, 2, 5 and 6. It was determined by the infectious center assay that the frequency of virus-producing cells in different AV varied between 1 of every 10(5) cells to 1 of every 10(7) cells. Cells reactive with hamster sera containing antibody against the adenovirus early ("T") antigen and with rabbit sera containing antibody against the virus structural antigens were detected in cell smears from trypsinized virus-positive AV. The frequency of positive cells was very low. Nearly 80 per cent of extracts from virus-positive AV contained substances neutralizing the homotypic viruses. Adenovirus-neutralizing substances were only rarely detected in extracts from virus-negative AV. The neutralizing substances could be removed from the extracts by absorbtion with concentrates of the homotypic viruses. Most of the subjects from whom AV containing neutralizing substances were obtained, possessed high levels of homotypic serum antibodies.